by Barry Meier
The Iranian judge was coming: I was told by an FBI source about the Iranian judge’s brief visit to Washington. It was confirmed by another bureau official. It is not clear whether any of the judge’s statements about Bob were accurate.
“The mullahs have industrialized the religion”: Dawud’s comments to Jon Lee Anderson appeared in The New Yorker, “A Fugitive in Iran,” September 30, 2009.
16. The Young Man
Oleg Deripaska: My description of Oleg Deripaska, his career, and his lobbying efforts to get a U.S. visa is based on accounts in several publications, including Bloomberg Markets magazine, Newsweek, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. He did not respond to inquiries seeking to interview him for this book.
One of the lawmaker’s advisors, Rick Davis: The Washington Post broke the story of Deripaska’s efforts to court Senator John McCain of Arizona on January 25, 2008.
Madzhit Mamoyan: I interviewed Madzhit on several occasions for this book and he told me about his relationship with Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned head of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
“I know that people are sucking your blood”: Interview with Boris Birshtein.
His most high-profile case at Kroll: Jeff Katz recounted his work examining the circumstances of Roberto Calvi’s death in an article for The Sunday Telegraph Magazine, “Dead Men Talking,” October 26, 2003.
The consultant, Xavier Houzel: Interview with Xavier Houzel.
“getting results from other irons”: Interview with Jeff Katz.
the Fars News Agency: The government news service’s attack on Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was published in 2009.
it was Anne Jablonski’s husband, Robert Otto: Several FBI officials confirmed Otto’s presence at meetings about Oleg Deripaska. Neither Otto nor the State Department responded to inquiries about it.
reporters at The Wall Street Journal got a tip: The newspaper’s front-page article about Deripaska’s visits to the United States, “FBI Lets Barred Tycoon Visit U.S.,” appeared on October 30, 2009.
“That’s just a fancy name for gruel”: The account of Deripaska’s meal and the oligarch’s comment was provided by a person present.
17. Proof of Life
Amir Farshad Ebrahimi: Jeff Katz and Dan Levinson described their meeting with Ebrahimi in a memo Katz sent to Chris on May 24, 2010.
“Our Nation is Proud to Be the Student”: The general consensus of intelligence and law enforcement officials was that these documents were forgeries. However, significant effort went into producing them.
Chris received a phone call: Interview with Chris.
“I hope this message finds you in good health”: Email from Chris to Dawud, April 20, 2010.
“Forgive this tardy reply”: Email from Dawud to Chris, April 26, 2010.
“This report is completely fictitious”: Email from Larry Sweeney to multiple recipients, including me, April 19, 2010.
Seyed Mir Hejazi, the reputed son: An FBI official told me that he was identified by the CIA as the son of Ayatollah Khameini’s intelligence chief.
he told Madzhit: Interviews with Madzhit and Boris Birshtein.
Hejazi, who was thirty-nine years old: My description of Seyed Mir Hejazi is based on his passport photograph.
“Martin finally called tonight”: Email from Larry Sweeney to Dave and Ira, February 1, 2010.
The similarities weren’t coincidences: Two federal officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity acknowledged the FBI had mistakenly ignored the first email from “Osman.Muhamad.”
18. Tradecraft
He told Chris something she never expected to hear: Robert Mueller, who resigned as FBI director in 2013, declined to be interviewed for this book.
Sean Joyce: Joyce, who retired from the FBI in 2013, declined to be interviewed for this book.
Whenever Joyce posed a question: Interview with a former FBI official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
They suggested President Obama: Interview with a former State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“As we approach the fourth anniversary”: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued this statement on March 3, 2011. She declined to be interviewed for this book.
“HE IS 99% SURE”: Email from Madzhit to Boris, March 18, 2011.
“These fucking people”: Boris Birshtein made this comment to me.
“My name is David Levinson”: The CDs containing Bob’s hostage video and Dave’s and Chris’s pleas for information about him were released on December 5, 2011.
19. Breaking News
Linda Fiorentino: I spoke with Linda Fiorentino on several occasions. When I informed her that her name would appear in this book, she did not respond to subsequent messages.
Prosecutors said they had found an internal CIA email: Interview with Dave McGee.
“I have thought about your disclosure”: Email from Dave McGee to Michael Mullaney, March 20, 2013.
“You mentioned a person”: Hassan Rouhani, president of Iran, made those comments to Christiane Amanpour on CNN on September 25, 2013.
a reporter for The New York Times: I was that reporter.
Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman: Interviews with Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman. Matt Apuzzo left the AP and now works for The New York Times. The book they coauthored is Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD’s Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden’s Final Plot Against America (New York: Touchstone, 2013).
editors at the AP contacted Chris’s sister: Interview with Suzi Halpin.
he didn’t need those notes: Interview with Adam Goldman.
Senator Bill Nelson was irate: Interview with Senator Bill Nelson.
“The CIA sent Bob Levinson on a mission”: Dave’s comments were made on NBC Nightly News, December 13, 2007.
“There hasn’t been progress”: John Kerry made this comment or similar ones to several news outlets, including ABC News.
He told The Christian Science Monitor: Dawud’s interview with the newspaper, “Iran Nabbed CIA Asset Levinson, Says Witness,” appeared on December 16, 2013.
20. The Fellowship
“Today, again, we call on the Iranian government”: President Obama spoke before the National Prayer Breakfast on February 6, 2014.
Haleh Esfandiari: Her book about her captivity in Iran is My Prison, My Home: One Woman’s Story of Captivity in Iran (New York: Ecco, 2009).
Terri Schiavo: My description of that high-profile case and Robert Destro’s role is drawn from accounts in several publications.
Seyed Mehdi Miraboutalebi: He was Iran’s ambassador in France from 2008 to 2012.
“As a believer and a follower of Jesus”: This extract from Douglas Coe’s letter to Ayatollah Khamenei is contained in a memo Robert Destro sent to the FBI agent Dean Harp on October 28, 2011. The memo is titled “Background Information on Putative ‘Religious Channel’ to the Office of Iran’s Supreme Leader, and Robert Levinson” and lays out the Fellowship’s involvement in the case.
“I called Doug Coe”: Ibid.
Eshel told the Iranian official: Madzhit Mamoyan and Ory Eshel met with Ambassador Miraboutalebi on October 30, 2011. Eshel subsequently sent an extensive memo about the meeting to Robert Destro.
“The Ambassador added”: The conditions for Bob’s release put forward by Ambassador Miraboutalebi were outlined in a memo sent by Ory Eshel to Robert Destro following the meeting on October 30, 2011. Destro subsequently sent a memo containing that information to the FBI agents Dean Harp and Don Voiret on October 31, 2011.
But Destro never heard another word about them: Interview with Robert Destro.
21. The Twilight War
Shahrazad Mir Gholikhan: The circumstances of her release were described by a former State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
a former Iranian diplomat living in London: The name of that former Iranian diplomat was Nosratollah Tajik.
Ira didn’t hear from him again: Interview with Ira Silverman.
“I thought that after nine years”: Chris’s comments were made to ABC News and the Associated Press, January 18, 2016.
“We have no idea”: John Kerry’s comment was reported by the Associated Press on January 19, 2016.
Acknowledgments
Every journalist hopes to find a rich, engaging story. No one expects seven years will pass before it sees the light of day. At times, I thought this book would never be written. Having made it this far, I thought readers might like to know how it came to be.
The story traces back to the fall of 2007, when I happened across a Financial Times article about the disappearance of a former FBI agent on Kish Island while investigating a case involving counterfeit cigarettes. I was interested in the account and the involvement of a fugitive, American-born assassin—Dawud Salahuddin. The story became more intriguing when private investigators involved with counterfeit cigarettes cases told me they never would have gone to Iran and were at a loss to understand why the former agent, Bob Levinson—a big white guy with a Jewish name—would take such a risk.
Before long, things took a turn toward the strange. I met Ira Silverman and Dave McGee at a New York hotel and both men insisted that Bob had gone to Kish on a mission for the CIA. They were dismayed by the FBI’s lack of interest in the case and showed me Bob’s CIA consulting contract. They hoped attention to his story from a publication such as The New York Times might force the FBI and CIA into action. It was impossible, I told them, to know what was going on without seeing Bob’s records. I flew to Florida and had lunch with Chris Levinson. She agreed to allow me to review her husband’s work files and emails. At Dave’s offices in Pensacola, a journalistic fantasy awaited—about ten file boxes were piled high on a conference room table. The CIA-related documents and many of the emails cited in this book were a part of that trove.
I spent months reconstructing the path that Bob took to Kish, and by mid-2008, the Times could have published an account about his CIA relationship and ill-fated Kish trip. But Dave, as a condition to giving me access to the material, had insisted on one ground rule to which I had readily agreed—I could use the information as the basis for reporting, but I wouldn’t write anything that jeopardized Bob’s safety. Over the years that followed, there were times when I was certain that Bob was dead. On one weekend in 2010, I told my wife I was convinced he was no longer alive—absolutely nothing had been heard from him since 2007—and that I planned to go into the office on Monday and argue we should publish our story. That same evening, I was forwarded the email containing the hostage video in which he made his plea for help. Among other things I learned while working on this story is that the assumptions we make as journalists are sometimes wrong.
The Times published my account of Bob’s story after the Associated Press released its story in late 2013. Critics contended that the newspaper had bowed to requests from the U.S. government to conceal what it knew about Bob’s case. There is no truth to that. The simple fact is that we didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize Bob or complicate efforts to free him. Perhaps that was naïve. But it was a decision that my editors at the Times and I never regretted or second-guessed. That said, when the AP published its article I felt a sense of relief; keeping a secret for seven years was a burden.
This book was made possible because of the help and participation of a large number of people. I especially want to thank Christine Levinson, Dave McGee, Ira Silverman, and members of the Levinson family, including Stephanie, Sarah, Samantha, Daniel, and David, for putting their trust in me. They may find parts of this book difficult to read, but my goal was to provide a clear understanding of why Bob Levinson would risk going to Kish and the events that transpired afterward.
Sonya Dobbs deserves a special shout-out for helping me with documents and sending me Sarah Palin’s autobiography—which I never read. I want to thank Robert Amsterdam, Matt Apuzzo, Boris Birshtein, Houshang Bouzari, Kathleen Carroll, Robert Destro, Neil Docherty, Linda Fiorentino, Philip Scott Forbes, Adam Goldman, John Good, James Grady, Richard Gregorie, Suzi Halpin, Margaret Henoch, Xavier Houzel, Chris Isham, Michael Isikoff, Ron Jordison, Jeff Katz, Mark Lowenthal, Linden MacIntyre, Madzhit Mamoyan, Joyce McGee, James McJunkin, Jim Mintz, John Moscow, Senator Bill Nelson, Kenneth Rijock, Brian Ross, Philippe Séchaud, Betsy Silverman, Peter Smolyanski, Larry Sweeney, and Joe Trento.
Some U.S. officials who once worked or are still working for the FBI or other parts of the government provided information to me but requested anonymity in doing so. They know who they are.
I can’t say enough about my colleagues at the Times, who allowed my reporting on the Levinson case to go on for so long. Matt Purdy and Paul Fishleder deserve special thanks. Several Times reporters, past and present, including David Johnson, Mark Mazzetti, Eric Schmidt, Mike Schmidt, Scott Shane, and Willie Rashbaum, provided valuable advice. Three executive editors at the Times—Bill Keller, Jill Abramson, and Dean Baquet—knew about this project and were supportive of it. Nazila Fathi, a former Times reporter in Iran who was forced to flee her homeland, sent me notes from her visit to Kish Island. David McCraw, as he has always done, provided sound advice. Dean Murphy kindly allowed me to take a leave of absence to work on this book.
A very special tip of the hat goes to my desk mates and friends, particularly Jad Mouawad and Andy Martin, who managed to maintain their senses of humor (and mine) despite hearing hours of strange conversations emanating from my direction. Other friends both inside and outside the Times, including Michael Moss, Richard Einhorn, and Amy Singer, knew about Bob’s story for years and urged me to keep the faith. Peter Eavis, Sam Grobart, and Nathaniel Popper lent their support. Henry Griggs, Susan Bernfield, Claude Millman, Linda Gottesfeld, Phil Parker, Alice Blank, David Udell, Eric Abouf, Morgan Brill, and Cheryl Whaley were among those who kept my family fed and entertained. Catha and Viggo Rambusch, our summer neighbors, have been a constant source of delight, flowers, and inspiration.
My sincerest thanks go to Andrew Wylie, my agent, and Eric Chinski of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, who decided to take a chance on publishing a book despite knowing beforehand that its ending, at least in a traditional sense, might never be known. Eric did precisely what a writer hopes an editor will do, make his work better, a job he managed to do with grace and humor. I am also grateful to everyone else at FSG who helped turn a manuscript into a book, especially Laird Gallagher. Lisa Silverman smoothed rough spots and straightened out miscues. Elizabeth McNamara scoured the results.
Writing this book would have been impossible without the love and understanding of my wife, Ellen, and our daughter, Lily. When Lily was about twelve, I told her about Bob Levinson’s story, explaining that she shouldn’t say anything about it to anyone. I now realize that was way too much to ask, but Lily kept Bob’s secret vouchsafed. I take great joy in her compassionate nature. As for Ellen, what can I say? Her endurance, her fortitude, her understanding, far outstrip my capacities in all these arenas. So do her capabilities as a writer and journalist. She was the guiding force behind this book and applied her talents as an editor to its structure and flow. Every husband and every author should be so lucky.
New York, 2015
Index
The index that appears in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
ABC; 20/20
Abedini, Saeed
ABSCAM
Abu Dhabi
Afghanistan; U.S. invasion of
Agha-Soltan, Neda
Ahmad, Ebrahim Ali
Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud; elected president; on Levinson; reelection of; television interview of; U.N. speech of
Alarzagh, Ahmad Ali
Al Qaeda; Nazarbayev and
aluminum
al-Zayat, Fouad
Amanpour, Christiane
American Fugitive
&
nbsp; American Hustle
Amsterdam, Robert
Anderson, Jon Lee
APCO International
Apuzzo, Matt
Asgari, Ali Reza
Ashcroft, John
Associated Press (AP)
Atta, Mohamed
Austria
Bae, Kenneth
Baer, Robert
Bailey, F. Lee
Banco Ambrosiano
Bank of Credit and Commerce International
Bank of Cyprus
Barzani Kurds
Basij
Bauer, Shane
bauxite
Beery, Jonathan
Beggs & Lane
Beirut
bin Laden, Osama; Soghanalian and
Birshtein, Boris; Coe and; Deripaska and; FBI and; Fellowship and; in Istanbul meeting with Levinson; Levinson and; Mamoyan and; Mogilevich and; Riza and
Bishop International
Black Dahlia, The (Ellroy)
Blackwater
Blankfein, Lloyd
blood diamonds
Boudreau, Rocky
Bouzari, Houshang; Levinson and; Levinson’s arrangements for border crossing of; South Pars and; torture of
Braverman, Jack
British American Tobacco (BAT)
Brooke Army Medical Center
Brookner, Janine
Bush, George W.
Businessweek
Byrne, Patrick M.
Calvi, Roberto
Carney, Jay
Carroll, Kathleen
Carter, Jimmy
Cash, Tom
Cat Nutrition
Cauffiel, Tommy
Center for Justice and Accountability
Center for Public Integrity
Central America
Chain Murders of Iran
Chávez, Hugo
Christian Science Monitor, The
CIA (Central Intelligence Agency); al-Zayat talks and; analytical branch of; clandestine operations of; Colombian hostage situation and; Counterterrorism Center of; Directorate of Intelligence; Directorate of Operations; disclosure of Levinson’s ties to; documentation of Levinson’s relationship with; expansion of; FBI and; forced departures from; hiring boom at; Illicit Finance Group of; internal investigation into Levinson’s disappearance; Iran and; Jablonski at, see Jablonski, Anne; Levinson and; Levinson as consultant for; and Levinson family’s financial situation; Levinson’s consulting contract with; Levinson’s contract revision recommendations to; Levinson’s disappearance and; Levinson’s finances and; Levinson’s Kish trip and; Levinson’s project proposals to; Levinson’s reports to; official confirmation of Levinson’s connection with; Omar and; and publishing of sensitive information; and renditions of terror suspects; scapegoating at; Soghanalian and; and talks with Iran about Levinson’s release; in weekly meetings on Levinson case